Up and Down News and an Acceptance

In the late afternoon, as my spouse got ready to teach his Friday night class, I read about the death of Larry McMurtry.  At one point, McMurtry was my spouse's favorite writer, and we owned all of McMurtry's books.  And then, about an hour later, I learned that Beverly Cleary had died at the age of 104.

I've written about Cleary before, most completely in the first part of this blog post.  And I periodically return to Lonesome Dove--see this blog post for one of my more complete considerations.  Last night I made this Facebook post:  "A tough day in terms of literary losses, with the death of Larry McMurtry and Beverly Cleary. So I was happy to meet the baby of my neighbor's son, the son who had a horrifying motorcycle accident a few years ago, and it's amazing he lived, much less had a baby with his high school sweetheart. In October, just before the baby was born, I made her this quilt, and tonight we met face to face. In a few years, maybe I'll give her a book by Beverly Cleary, after we go around the neighborhood Christmas caroling."

Yesterday was that kind of up and down day all day.  It is strange to be at a campus that is in a slow motion closing, doing the work that keeps the campus going, while at the same time, knowing that work will eventually come to naught--and yes, I get the metaphor.  All of life can be described this way.

During my lunch break, I was writing an e-mail to my family to catch them up on developments--for the most part, I've been in a wait and see period.  I sent the e-mail that said that my application to Wesley Theological Seminary was complete, and I had been waiting impatiently for the mail each day, as if I was a high school senior.

Then I wondered if I would get an old-fashioned letter, so I went to the Wesley website.  The application area has a dashboard once one has applied--that's how I could track whether or not my materials had arrived.  A week ago, they all had (on March 15, one letter still needed to arrive), and the dashboard showed that my application was complete and under consideration.

I wasn't sure how the process worked at that point.  Does Wesley do rolling admissions?  Are there a limited number of seats?  How many of those seats might be reserved for Methodists, for people of color, for people with higher GPAs than mine?  How long before I would know?

Yesterday afternoon, the dashboard showed that there was a decision.  Oh my!  I clicked, and the website launched my acceptance letter.  I made a copy, just in case one never comes by U.S. Mail.  I clicked on the button to let Wesley know that I plan to enter seminary for Fall 2021, and I paid the $125 fee.  I read a bit on the portal that I now have access to as an entering student.

Then it was time to return my attention to work.  Part of me wanted to tell all of my colleagues the good news, while part of me wanted to keep checking to make sure that I had seen news of acceptance.  Had Wesley changed its mind?  I also didn't want to share because I didn't want to answer questions. 

I know that a lot of people might have surprised at how relieved I am to get official acceptance.  Some people have said to me, "Of course you'll be accepted.  How could you not?"  And I resist listing all the reasons.  

I'm so glad that none of those reasons turned out to be a dealbreaker.  I'm so glad for this acceptance letter.